Liberty University Club Sports
Minot State University
Sluggish start backfires on No. 3 Flames in DI semifinal rematch with No. 4 Beavers
10/15/2021 12:10:00 AM | Men's D1 Hockey
In a rematch of last spring’s national championship semifinal, Liberty University’s No. 3-ranked ACHA Division I men’s hockey team got out to a slow start and its penalty kill unit gave up its first two goals in a 6-4 loss to No. 4 Minot State, Friday night at Maysa Arena.
“We have a great PK, (but) we just didn’t have our legs tonight and first two periods we didn’t have a lot of pushback,” Flames Head Coach Kirk Handy said. “We had low energy tonight in the first two periods and didn’t have the jump we needed offensively.”
The Flames (6-1) outshot Minot State (3-0) by a 39-30 margin but Jake Anthony made 35 saves in goal for the Beavers. Meanwhile, Liberty junior Cédric Le Sieur made 18 saves but gave up all six Minot goals through the first 33:19 before being replaced by junior Hunter Virostek, trailing 6-1.
The Beavers got out to a 2-0 lead on even-strength goals by Jared Hamm and Landyn Cochrane before Flames sophomore forward Jason Foltz cut the deficit to 2-1 by finishing a feed from freshman forward Jackson Vercellono in the final minute of the first period.
However, Minot State rallied for four goals in a span of three and a half minutes midway through the second stanza to break the game wide open. Davis Sheldon and Wayde Johannesson capitalized on power-play opportunities to net the fourth and sixth goals, with Reid Arnold converting the fifth as the two teams skated four-on-four.
Between the Flames and the Beavers, 10 different players scored the game’s 10 goals on the night.
Vercellono trimmed Minot’s advantage to 6-2 off assists from sophomore forward DJ Schwenke and freshman defenseman Nate Cox with 2:01 left in the second period before Liberty made it a game by scoring the only two goals in the third, both on the power play.
Junior forward Matt Bartel netted his team-leading eighth goal of the season by finishing a feed from freshman forward Jacob Kalandyk before sophomore forward Kam Ottenbreit capped the scoring off a pass from Bartel.
“We managed to battle back and play well in third period (but) we have to reset for tomorrow,” Handy said of Saturday’s 8:30 p.m. EST rematch back at Maysa Arena. “This is a good opportunity for us to face some adversity and work through it as a team. We’re not afraid of it, we embrace it. We realize collectively as a group, we have to be better tomorrow.”
By Ted Allen/Staff Writer
